Ok, so I rode in 23 degrees yesterday, and as I was turning around in a parking lot, the front tire hit a very small patch of ice, and my 800 Classic went over. Anyway, picked her up, let her rest a couple hours, and started home. Heard a loud ticking I've never heard, and thought it was my turn signal left on. Not so. Both oil and temp lights were on. Pulled over, fan started. Listened closely, and it sounds as though it's coming from the front of the engine. Oh God. Let it rest another hour. Started, lights went off. Still ticking. Stuck in BF Egypt. Hubby said I had to ride it, and it should be fine. Started home. Ticked all the way home, but got no worse or better, or turn into tapping. Let it rest overnight, started this morning. Still ticking loudly. What is it, and why would a drop make this happen? What do I check? Does he need to tear my bike down? Not taking it to the rip off artist dealers around here if I don't have to. Help!

If you run it now, is the oil light still on? If so, loosen the oil filter enough so that it can be turned by hand. Start the engine and loosen the filter enough for some oil (and any trapped air) to escape. Tighten the filter and see if the light goes out and stays out. The 800s seem susceptible to losing their ability to re-prime their oil systems after a lay down, and even after an oil and filter change. If you rode it for awhile with the oil light on you've probably damaged the engine pretty good. A tow home is usually much cheaper than riding it back home with a condition like this.

It fell to the right. I have a crash bar, so it didn't damage the fan or anything, barely a scratch on the bar even. I caught it going down, so it didn't slam or anything. Just kind of set it down gently. Not an exhaust leak either. You can hear it in the front of the engine. It is constant, moving or not. Corresponds with the speed of the engine, and while sitting still as well. Someone said perhaps it was vapor lock in one piston? I don't know. Didn't ride it far, maybe 1 mile, with the lights on. They went out after the fan kicked on. However, it still ticked. He is tearing it down to see if a shim got knocked loose in the head or something now. Paco, I'll tell him what you said as well. I did not ride far with the oil and temp lights on (wasn't overheated either, so we figured it was just because of the drop), maybe a mile. When the fan kicked on as we were listening (took awhile to get that warm), the lights went out, but the tick continued. Hopefully it did nothing horrible. It didn't get any worse, and the lights never came back on. Thanks for the quick replies, all!

It fell to the right. I have a crash bar, so it didn't damage the fan or anything, barely a scratch on the bar even. I caught it going down, so it didn't slam or anything. Just kind of set it down gently. Not an exhaust leak either. You can hear it in the front of the engine. It is constant, moving or not. Corresponds with the speed of the engine, and while sitting still as well. Someone said perhaps it was vapor lock in one piston? I don't know. Didn't ride it far, maybe 1 mile, with the lights on. They went out after the fan kicked on. However, it still ticked. He is tearing it down to see if a shim got knocked loose in the head or something now. Paco, I'll tell him what you said as well. I did not ride far with the oil and temp lights on (wasn't overheated either, so we figured it was just because of the drop), maybe a mile. When the fan kicked on as we were listening (took awhile to get that warm), the lights went out, but the tick continued. Hopefully it did nothing horrible. It didn't get any worse, and the lights never came back on. Thanks for the quick replies, all!

Stock pipes? If so, check that the baffle/insert at the exhaust end is not loose on one of the pipes. Rivets can pop and it becomes loose. This can bang around, changing with the speed of the engine and sound like it is coming from the engine.

Stock pipes? If so, check that the baffle/insert at the exhaust end is not loose on one of the pipes. Rivets can pop and it becomes loose. This can bang around, changing with the speed of the engine and sound like it is coming from the engine.

Dang, I think you may have hit on something here... how about just one of the exhaust gaskets? If the exhaust was bumped at all and the header bolts loose, I can see this causing the loud ticking sound.

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Well, we figured it out. It was vapor locked! Apparently, these bikes are known for vapor lock in the oil pump after a drop or near-drop. I did some research online, and kept seeing this, called our mechanic, he said yep. So we loosened up the filter (as per net instructions and mechanic), turned the bike on, and waited for oil to squirt out. When it did, we turned it off and tightened back up. Worked perfectly. No more loud tick/tapping! Just thought I'd let ya'll know this is a known problem on this bike!

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